Sunday, May 20, 2012

Every time we go on vacation I always check to see if there is a chance we
might have dark skies, and I mean dark.
Why? Well, if your a fan of time-lapse, stars are the ultimate subject.
For most of us, light pollution surrounds us every night, only a few stars
might be visible to the naked eye. To shoot a good astro time-lapse you need
to find really dark skies. One of the few places near where I live where you might
get some good darkness is the beach, thank you sea turtles. On our last
staycation I was lucky to get a balcony room up on a high floor and shot thismoonset and astro time-lapse. I shot it with my old Canon 40D, bad pixels and all.
The first shot is of a waxing crescent Moon and Venus.
The fourth and fifth and sixth shots show how clouds and light pollution
can make shooting stars difficult.
In the world of astro time-lapse it's ok but not great, I always take the opportunity
to practice for when I get some really dark skies.

Years ago I shot this frame from a lower balcony, you can see the tail end of
the milky-way. The pool and resort lights blow out the foreground.

When I got my first DSLR (Canon 20D) one of the first things I shot was this
long exposure looking at the north star.